Q: Lion randomly crashes - black screen

This is getting worse and worse and worse, Apple *** is wrong with you guys?!

ogiebobo wrote:

 

I had my logic board replaced two days ago, and it's crashed twice each day since.  Thanks Apple for still not fixing my problem after nearly six months!

Go back to the Apple Store and demand a new logic board.

Apple *****! Months now with this problem - after they released a NOT WORKING VIDEO UPDATE. Cant work with the GFX card, meaning i cant work AT ALL. im a gfx designer and this is holding me back. i might change to windows till Apple wakes up.

no quick fix, and it seems Apple dont even know how to fix this.

I saw some Samsung and Toshiba notebooks in a store today being sold with Ubuntu pre-installed. I was impressed - it s a very clean looking GUI and you can see both Mac and Windows influences in the way its designed.

I'd always put off the linux option because the last way you want to learn a new OS is by trying to install it yourself with no idea of how it works. Seeing machines sold with it already up and running has given me a whole new alternative, though. I plan to buy a cheap $300 machine early next year and start learning how the OS works from a machine where its already installed (exactly how I learned Mac OS). If all pans out and its as good as it looks on initial inspection, I won't be replacing this Mac with another one when its life is done.

It'll be goodbye Mac and (no doubt to the glee of some members here) goodbye ASC.

I don't want to be without a computer for another 4-10 days again.  My computer is also now freezing without going black.  It seems to be about half and half.  I think I'll try once again wiping the hard drive and re-installing Lion and see if that'll work with the new logic board.  I don't have much hope though.

Just started getting them... I've had APPLE's for the past 20 years, and I've NEVER gotten a Kernel Panic, till I up'd to LION!!!

Apple, seriously, get your *** moving on this fix!! You should be embarrased!

I brought my mid-2010 15" MBP to my local Apple-annointed service provider, who ran the latest diagnostics tools and identified a problem with the logic board / graphics card.  They will be doing a full logic board replacement and it's covered under the warranty extension for this issue.  Six weeks ago, they had been unable to identify any issue using older diagnostic tools.

Hoping after what, three months, that I finally get a working laptop back.

*** Successful replacement of logic board ***

I posted a few weeks back about taking my 15" MBP to the Valley Fair mall in Santa Clara, CA to get my logic board replaced. I was seeing 10+ BSOD a day intermittently. The Genius Bar guy ran a video diagnostic and said I did not qualify for a fix and said there was nothing they could do short of paying the $300+ logic board replacement fee.

Last week, a poster posted a DEFINITE method of reproducing the crash consistently:

- Open PDF file

- Zoom in far enough so you can scroll up/down/left/right

- Start scrolling up/down/left/right  randomly and within seconds you should see a crash.

I took this to the Oakridge Mall in San Jose, CA and showed them how EASY it was to crash the unit.

They looked up my serial number and verified that they can replace my logic board. I waited about 3 business

days for the parts to arrive, brought in my unit, and got it back the very next day. I've had it for an entire day today and it hasn't crashed once so it's looking good.

BOTTOM LINE: If you've been turned down by Genius because you did not "fail" the video diagnostic test,

try it again. Like stephensjunk said, something must've been updated internally and you could qualify for a free replacement. 

amlin I tried to replicate your PDF method on my Macbook Pro 17'' 2009 (Lion) but no BSOD :/ It happens so randomly about once or twice per day.However I saved my Kernal Panic reports, do you think that's enough proof for an Apple Genius?

Moss, I forgot to mention this bug is specifically for a 2010 15" Pro with an i7 processor.

Honestly, having dealt with Genius twice I doubt a couple of crash logs could get them to fix anything. It appears the ONLY way they will fix it for free is if the serial number of your unit matches those in their system that qualifies for a fix.

Hello,

I couldn’t crash my MBP using a PDF but I discovered a way to crash it every time now:

• Open Pages (I have the App Store version installed) and select one of the templates (any template);
• Add or delete some text and then save it somewhere (I saved it to the Desktop);
• Close and open Pages again;
• Open the same document again and now go to Revert Document.
• CRASH!
  

I hope that this can be helpful....

Yeah I think there is some disconnect between what the test says and what the Genius says.

I went to the Apple store today and my computer decides to not black screen even though I can get it to do it as soon as I turn it on at home. The Genius said he could run a test at the back and I agreed. To my dismay, he said he couldn't reproduce the issue using the test (it works the CPU, raises the temperature and stuff).

I didn't know what to say and I probably looked funny doing Mission Control and opening windows trying to reproduce the issue. I asked if he had a charger (thinking that that may be a factor) and he brought me to the Genius bar to charge it and I tried to reproduce the issue some more. It finally BSOD right in front of him, but the Genius still said that the replacement would be ~$500 Canadian because it didn't pass their test.

I told him about the Apple Support document, and he said he knows there's one for 2008 and 2009 models. I don't know if he was joking or just played stupid. I showed him the Apple support document for the 2010 MBP and he said he still needs the computer to fail the test and generate a code or they can't replace it.

He said I could walk around the mall and let him run the test again so I did. Fifteen minutes later, I went back and he said that right at the end, the computer failed the test so I was going to get a replacement in a few days after they get the part in. I really thought I was going to be out of luck. Just keep pushing and ask them to do the test again and hopefully they will give you guys replacements for this ridiculous problem.

A New logic board fixed my mid 2010 15" i5 MBP. Final straw was i had 4 hard restarts the night before i took it in. I was going to kill some part of the computer with those. Not really any BSOD after a clean lion install (lots before) but now freezing with a spinning ball. force quit produced a frozen spinning ball. Had to be persistant as i passed the graphics test and the cpu test. left it for 2 days and they were not able to reproduce the problem. I talked to the head tech and told him i was going to kill a $2000 computer with all the hard restarts and this was a known problem. The fix is a new logic board.  Also the article says it is intermitant so i wasnt surprised that he could not reproduce it in 15 minutes.  He agreed and and they put in the new logic board.  Make sure it is the 6xxx part # to get the new revised board. I have had it going now for 5 days strait without a restart under the same load as before. I have also noticed that it switches alot more for the discreet card now but always comes back to integrated under low load graphics situations. 

On youtube any video quality over 480p causes it to  switch graphics cards and then switches back to integrated once the webpage is closed.  It did not do that before with the old board, only with certain programs (imovie, iphoto, ect) would the discreet kick in.

It also helped that one of the "geniuses" had a mid 2010 MBP 15" and she was having the exact same problems. They were all unaware of the article TS4088 so make sure you print it out or have the article # for them to look up. She just thought it was her computer as i did for the longest time.

A new board is the only known actual fix for this. Everything else is a workaround or a stopgap.

Loving my MBP again.

not only the i7... the i5 as well.  read the article. logic board issue not processor.